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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26504779">better</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/warptimeandspace/pseuds/warptimeandspace'>warptimeandspace</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>King Gansey character study, Multi, So where are the other royal raven cycle fics huh, royal au</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 13:20:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>773</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26504779</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/warptimeandspace/pseuds/warptimeandspace</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>King Richard has been told he needs better advisors.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Henry Cheng/Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent, Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>better</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>King Richard has been told he needs better advisors.</p><p>The people fear the Greywaren. With eyes full of magic and a smile sharp as knives, he scares the King’s subjects. His cloak is dark as night, his back threaded with shadows that shimmer beneath the skin. The Graywaren is strong, shown by the way he stands tall, tall, tall with the raven Chainsaw seated across his shoulders.</p><p>(Ronan is Gansey’s very best friend. Back when they were children, when Gansey didn’t realize what it meant to be a prince and Neil was the Greywaren, they would run through the halls squealing with childish glee, closely pursued by whatever monstrous friend Ronan has dreamt up this week. When they were young there were no knives in Ronan’s smile, simply gaps between his teeth. He’s still there, the Ronan that Gansey grew up alongside, just different. Changed. Ronan is older, sharper, bolder. Not braver, but only because there was not any braver to be. He is still loving. Still gentle, or as gentle as he’s ever been. Gansey has never been afraid of him.)</p><p>The people consider Cabeswater’s Hand eerie, almost inhuman. <em>Magician</em>, they call him, the word like dripping acid from their lips. <em>Magician</em>, like it is not his symbiotic relationship with the forest that keeps their houses standing, their children fed. The Hand is not new to the people. He comes from the city’s lowest ring, which means he is too rough for most of Henrietta’s nobleman; too ambitious for those who he grew up around.</p><p>(Gansey cherishes Adam. Cherishes counsel and his company. Adam keeps Gansey in check. He knocks sense into him when he forgets about the realities of living outside of these stone walls, bringing him forward into the light of a better day. Adam’s kindness blooms like the wildflowers he hands to the children who come to court, staring at him not because he was poor and left them all behind or because he was not born noble, but because of the circlet of living rowan leaves that grow around his brow. Very few people have Gansey’s complete and utter trust, but Adam is one of them.)</p><p>The Lord Cheng is the only one of King Richard’s advisors to be even mildly liked by the greater kingdom. His parents are respected, and it’s known that he received the education required for a king’s council. This is considered his only redeeming quality. Lord Cheng is ill humored, his speech is improper, an unfortunate fusion born from receiving an education from both tutors and from stealing away in marketplaces. He doesn’t fit.</p><p>(Henry—oh Henry fits. His lightness is a complement to Gansey’s darkness brought out by responsibility, his charm a mirror to Gansey’s awkwardness. Henry makes Gansey brave, pulling him through terror the shape of swarms and molding him into a just king. Henry has the best head for strategy out of all of them, is arguably the quickest thinker. Henry fits in Gansey’s council, at his table, in his bed. Henry fits.)</p><p>Funniest to the King, is that his lords do not think of the Queen as one of his advisors. It is public knowledge that the late King Richard and Queen Helena lived relatively separate lives privately while maintaining publicly that they were a united front. It had been thought that the King’s relationship with the Queen would be somewhat similar. They make an odd couple, The King neat, polished in a way that you can only be from having it drilled into you day after day. The Queen is chaotic, with earth under her nails and freedom in her breath, a symptom of her Ter e E’lintes upbringing. The King treats his subjects with kindness and respect from a safe distance. The Queen hugs people in the street. The court whispers, speaking of a day when the Queen will show herself a fool and the King will breakaway from her.</p><p>(Gansey’s relationship with Blue is nothing like his parent’s relationship. He loves her fiercely, a love strong enough to die and come back to life for. Gansey loves watching her in the morning when he wakes up, seeing her braid her hair through with favors handed to her from their people. Gansey loves her laugh. He loves the feel of her hand in his, their fingers woven together like an epic tapestry instead of the court appropriate hand on his arm. They are two sides of the same coin, serious and irreverent, spontaneous and planned.  She is his true love.)</p><p>They tell King Richard that he needs better advisors. He doesn’t know of any better than his.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>fam i am so tired take this and trust that i love my kids. I’m on tumblr @ warptimeandspace  hit me up sometime we can hang</p></blockquote></div></div>
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